Question on Primers

[cwall64]

I was wondering what others thought of these primers (Federal 150 Match), are they pressure signs?  The load is book max from Western's PDF manual, Hornady 180 grain XTPs over 13.5 grains of AA #9.  This load is well below the Hornady #9 manual values.  The load chronographed at an average of 1298 ftps across 10 shot group out of a Glock 20 with KKM barrel and 24 lbs RSA.

[The_Shadow]

I'd say they were perfect looking at them, if you didn't see any smile lines they are good to go!   

[DM1906]

They look OK, for Federal primers. They are softer across the anvil, and will emboss more easily than the other common brands. Match are supposed to be softer yet, but I've never noticed a difference. Federal primers are preferred by many competition shooters, when their pistols typically have much lighter hammers/pins.

All that said, primer strike appearance is only one part of pressure indications, and a very small part. The edges aren't flowing, which is good. Make sure you are paying very close attention to COAL, especially at max charge loads with XTP bullets. They tend to produce higher pressures, due to the short nose and long bearing surface. It eats up your freebore, quick.

[cwall64]

Thanks for the replies.  I guess it was a case of shooting 9mm soft loads most of the morning, then switching over to the 10mm made me think, damn are these too stout!  No smiles or anything going on with case expansion.  I wouldn't mind dropping back to 1200 - 1250 ftps though, just to have a little breathing room.  I'll have to go back to my documentation on the work up and see about where that is.

On the Federal primers, they were available locally when I got back into reloading, and since I did my work ups with them, I stuck with them.  I really didn't want to redo a bunch of testing...  A few dollars more, but saves me the testing time!

[Taterhead]

That looks perfectly normal to me too. No concerns.

[Brad_Holmes]

New to loading and I have the same issue with my Witness and the CCI primers. Whether shooting 155 XTP or 180 gr hollow points. Light load or heavier load. Thanks for the pic that helped this newbie.

[halfglocked]

 this is a great question ,and I didn't  realize that federal  primers were soft,and  I really didn't  realize primers didn't vary that much between manufacturers is there any post showing differences between manufactu r es ecspicially  with say pressure differences.

[my_old_glock]

That looks perfectly normal to me too. No concerns.

+1

Looks normal to me also.


.